lauren's library blog

Part of my involvement with the Emerging Leader’s program as LITA’s sponsored person is to be involved with the Town Meeting. I really like the Town Meeting… it’s a good opportunity to meet people and see what they are thinking about the organization. This year’s theme was communication and marketing, so we discussed things around that topic. I need to type up the sheets from each group, but for now, here are the notes I took at the meeting. If you’re reading and you have additional comments, feel free to add them. If you’re reading and you were there and you see an area I did get or misrepresented, please let me know!

Message:

• flexible
• innovative
• leadership (tech w/in association)
• values oriented
• networking
• welcoming
• experimental
• policy influencers within org
• consultative
• fun!
• let us help diffuse your techno fears
• let us help you build a better library through the right tech.
• if you know what you want, let us know and we can help you build it (something like this)
• Leadership: provide
• Intersection: between managers and techies, librarians and users, library and community
• Technology: from bits to bytes, etc.
• Action/Application: apply what we can do to help our users and beyond
• LITA is for our members, not for ALA, not for library specifically, it’s for our members
• no one’s going to do anything if they don’t think it’s fun
LITA is also working for policy to make things better throughout ALA and beyond that LITA as consultants to other groups and orgs. LITA serves members and beyond (that’s the “intersection” idea) In assessment: not just joining but to be involved with LITA (I would add: as involved as they’d like to be)

Method

• website, listserv, blogs, wikis, podcasts
• face to face
• started contact as students
• assessment committee could evaluate methods
• want multiple channels
• RSS Feeds
• online training
• topic based online communities (maybe IG, maybe not)
• SecondLife, Facebook, social online, etc
• partner with other IT orgs./conferences/processes/etc.
• mentoring as a new program/method
• some assessment of current comm. would be a good start
• unfortunate there aren’t non-LITA members here; want to know what to do to draw people in
• remote participation: utilize skype, etc, add more people to our meeting
• want to create a feeling for new members that’s about what we can do for them, not what they can do for us
• should follow up with personal email (not automated) asking if people got what want, found committees, etc
• always have a greeter at LITA happy hour so you’re immediately drawn in (this is something we’re doing well)
• someone in LITA could have a personal job of welcoming new & existing LITA members (each committee or IG, too)
• like the blog
• the bloggers’ room is more and more busy, would like to open blogger room to all ALA members and use it to introduce LITA to potential members
• discussion lists that can be open should be open
• cool to put videos of speakers or interviews of LITA members on YouTube (this is actually in the works)
• LITA group is in facebook, could utilize these things more
• more in CogNotes
• shorter but more frequent email updates from LITA
• medium is the messages: should have aesthetic appeal
• generated email isn’t fun or welcoming
• if everything we do uses tech in appropriate ways we’re doing what we want to do but are raising proficiency, etc.
• by being expected to try one little thing you’ve not done before, you learn more and are more engaged (just by being on a LITA committee)
• idea of a sandbox. nonLITA member suggested a place for hands on experience and try new things (now there is a line in the budget for sandbox money
• lots of LITA members are parts of other divisions, can do marketing there

List

• “blended technologists” where a library staff member in another area also deals with technology
• OSS & Grassroots tech communities (code4lib, etc)
• outside IT
• public librarians
• non librarian staff (programmers, etc)
• public services/access services
• younger/new library staff
• students
• tech support– esp. learning commons, others
• definition of IT is important: let’s not limit our vision of IT… OLPC, etc, there are other areas of technology
• ARL types are doing data grids, etc, and get the big NSF grants for innovation, etc, so there could be ties there
• young adult, school, etc, are possible ties, too
• evangelism list: new librarians, administrators, current LITA members, non library IT folks, vendors, etc.
• “Technology is air” it’s everywhere
• it’s okay there’s code4lib, but it’d be nice if we could engage with them and interact
• Instead of siloing, work across divisions: we’re here to help you and make you more comfortable
• partnering with other orgs. to see about joint programming

Are we the technology leaders?

• Andrew: maybe not of tech. and application, but when combined with leadership and interaction, maybe
• not the bleeding edge of tech as an organization
• leaders of practical vision
• technology implementers in production environment
• as an association struggling to keep up, through we have some on the bleeding edge
• sometimes we trail, and see we’re behind, but haven’t translated into technology leadership
• we weren’t the first bloggers, there are few times we were first
• do libraries want to be bleeding edge?
• there are certain things that only this org can do… but doesn’t meet we’ll always succeed at them
• maybe not an innovator, but where ideas come and get pushed out
• some joined LITA because interested in cutting edge tech.
• LITA as an org. isn’t where it should be sometimes (weren’t first in ALA to blog or do online ed)
• must be way ahead of everyone, but haven’t always been doing that
• do people come to LITA for information, leadership, etc?
• leadership isn’t necessarily about being first, but is about who brings it to the masses. do you want to be first or do you want to make a difference.
• sometimes doing something first, even if it isn’t successful, makes a difference (think first browser, etc.)
• three of us raised our hands for “under 30″ someone asked why there aren’t more here (one person said because they were out last night)
• we need to bring the people in who were raised in this technology
• need to look at our visibility within ALA…. everyone is doing technology, half the “Freedom to Read” lawsuits involve tech… we should be the first place people look for information to help with this technology
• we’re not moving & shaking, so we’re not standing out
• can’t always be first, could be evaluative
• can’t wait for people to come to us b/c then they shape how we’re viewed, not how we want to be viewed
• how can we do ALA outreach?

I tried to write up a follow up paragraph twice, and both times it dissolved into my own opinions, so in wrap up I’ll just say that after each group presented their information we wrapped up, and Maurice York interviewed Andrew Pace and I for a LITA Podcast. When I get the link I’ll post it here.

As for my own opinions:

It was clear to me that a lot of members have clearly defined ideas of what LITA means to them, and that not everyone is on the same page… but that’s the idea of meetings like this: to understand where everyone is and to try to get some direction out of it. I was really surprised by the leadership discussion, though. I tend to have the expectation that LITA should be bleeding edge leading the association, but that it really is not. I actually had a conversation with someone after Top Tech Trends where we were a little surprised that the new horizon stuff was just mentioned at the very end, and the bulk of the conversation was what we are discussing in our own institutions. Of course, that discussion is very important and is contemporary and is technology related… I just think that many people do expect for LITA to teach them about what’s coming, even if the member is staying pretty current on their own. That can set a pretty high expectation for LITA, though, because the bleeding edge can be hard to keep up with.

Personally, I wonder about the people resisting LITA as the bleeding edge of ALA side… I think there could be a large pool of people who are willing to be there and give things a try. BIGWIG, and to some extent Emerging Technologies, are excellent venues for this with members who are paying attention to bleeding edge technology. These people could represent LITA in bleeding edge work. I wonder if LITA as a whole could be about evaluating bleeding edge pilots and recommend implementation strategies for ourselves (as leaders) and other ALA orgs (as consultants). But that’s just me.

Related posts:

1. ALA/LITA Elections
2. LITA Distance Education Interest Group
3. getting back into blogging
4. information commons
5. COSWL meeting